This may be the first time I’ve actually put the entire recipe in the first paragraph of my post. Shameless. Utterly shameless.
Typically, this salad is made from sliced tomatoes layered on a platter with basil leaves and sliced fresh mozzarella. Pretty simple as well, but I shortcut it even further by chopping and dropping the ingredients into a bowl. I like the contrast of olives with the tomatoes and added a hand full to the salad as well.

The olives also gave me the opportunity to use my new cherry/olive pitter, a gift from OXO Good Grips at the IFBC conference I attended in May. I never thought I would need a pitter but have since found myself using it for not only cherries but olives too. The pits fly right out with ease!

Perfect for a picnic since it doesn’t contain any mayo or eggs. It also works well for a large gathering since it’s easy to serve and is a substantial salad in case any of your guests are vegetarian. I served it as a savory salad at brunch and it found it a nice contrast to the accompanying fruit salad.

Caprese salad leftovers make for out of this world sandwich topping. Take your favorite crusty baguette and fill with any meat of your choice, then scoop on a helping of this salad. Or as you’ll see below, use the salad to fill a fluffy omelet.

These are all of my favorite things! One night I actually sent CK out to Whole Foods specifically to buy that exact olive pitter so I could make stuffed olives. The thing is … he doesn’t even eat them. It was all for my selfish snacking pleasure. I’m such a slave driver, right?

This salad is an absolute delight. The taste is so elegant and the addition of the olives is just perfect. My entire family loved it, even the kids and they don’t usually like salad that isn’t full of ceasar dressing.